Bulls sink hapless Dolphins to begin series

It looks like the USF baseball team is back in business, even with the distraction of walk-up songs.

The Bulls finally earned back the right for walk-up songs at the USF Baseball Stadium Tuesday - a privilege taken away from the team by coach Lelo Prado due to a frustrating performance in a 9-1 loss to the North Florida Osprey's on Feb. 22.

A weekend series sweep of the Savannah State Tigers proved to Prado that the team was focused and ready to get back to baseball.

Armed and ready with their favorite at-bat songs, the Bulls took control of Tuesday's game in a lengthy second inning, walloping the Jacksonville Dolphins 8-0.

"We played a good ballgame overall and I'm happy for the guys," Prado said. "The more we win, the more confident they are going to get."

Designated hitter Todd Brazeal led off the second inning with a single, which began a streak of four consecutive USF batters getting on base thanks to three hits and an error. After Kyle Teaf struck out, USF saw three more consecutive batters reach first, on the strength of two hits and an error. Four runs were scored in the decisive second inning.

"We got a good performance from Matt Reed, and then (Nick) Gonzalez at the end," "OurIt looks like the USF baseball team is back in business, even with the distraction of walk-up songs.

The Bulls finally earned back the right for walk-up songs at the USF Baseball Stadium Tuesday - a privilege taken away from the team by coach Lelo Prado due to a frustrating performance in a 9-1 loss to the North Florida Osprey's on Feb. 22.

A weekend series sweep of the Savannah State Tigers proved to Prado that the team was focused and ready to get back to baseball.

Armed and ready with their favorite at-bat songs, the Bulls took control of Tuesday's game in a lengthy second inning, walloping the Jacksonville Dolphins 8-0.

"We played a good ballgame overall and I'm happy for the guys," Prado said. "The more we win, the more confident they are going to get."

Designated hitter Todd Brazeal led off the second inning with a single, which began a streak of four consecutive USF batters getting on base thanks to three hits and an error. After Kyle Teaf struck out, USF saw three more consecutive batters reach first, on the strength of two hits and an error. Four runs were scored in the decisive second inning.

"We got a good performance from Matt Reed, and then (Nick) Gonzalez at the end," "Our hitters hit, and (Jacksonville) made some mistakes and we took advantage of it,"

Both mental and physical errors were the story of the game for the Dolphins. They had four errors on the game, all of which came in the second and third innings, in which the Bulls struck for seven of their eight runs.

Reed was the starter for the Bulls for the first time since his strong performance against Bethune Cookman on Feb. 26, where he pitched six innings while allowing just one run, but was tagged with the loss.

This time, Reed wasn't taking chances.

The senior went for seven strong innings, allowing four hits and no runs, while striking out two. He was awarded the victory for the game.

"I'm happy for (Reed), he's such a great kid and he had a spectacular outing tonight," Prado said.